False Dawn

**Disclaimer: I don’t own Pitch Black nor do I make any money from the portrayal of its characters here. Thanks.

**Note: This story was written more than 2 years ago. Reading it now, I can see things that I wouldn’t write now. Let me hear your opinions. A story can only get better with help, right? --Thanks.


Chapter 1

“Tell them Riddick’s dead.” He turned his head to look at the girl in the co-pilot's seat. His voice was lower, if that was possible, as he said, “He died somewhere on that planet.”

Jack’s pale lips curved up in a small smile. He could see the fatigue in her wide staring eyes. She would probably accept anything he said in that moment if only because she was too weary to argue. She seemed so trusting, but he had to wonder what she was really like, when not covered in blood and forced to run a gauntlet of starving beasts.

Riddick moved his hand to grip hers where it lay limply on her dirt and blood crusted pants and then laid his head back. He watched her do the same, wondering if she even realized she was mimicking him. He closed his eyes with a sigh, trying to will the pain in his leg to stop. It was bad, he knew it was, but they all needed a little time to relax and come to terms with the nightmare they had left behind before taking on this new problem.

His lids were heavy, opening slowly only to close again. The lure of elusive sleep was nearly a tangible taste. A red light on the ships controls glowed to life and then started flashing, catching his attention. It was followed by a piercing beep. He sat up, releasing Jack’s hand, staring hard at the light's label. “Damn.”

She was sitting forward too, though she was looking towards him. “What, Riddick? What is it?”

He pushed several buttons, bringing up the flashing power monitor. “Fuck!”

“Mr. Riddick, what is wrong?” the holy man asked, rising from his knees to stand behind their chairs.

“The cells.” He pushed several more buttons, swearing again. “Ain’t supposed to drag ‘em through the mud, I guess.” He released a long sigh, hating this predicament and its clear solution. “They’re draining fast.”

“Draining? What do you mean?” Jack’s voice was rising as she spoke. “What are we supposed to do?”

Riddick looked at her briefly, checking to see if she was going to get hysterical. “We go back.”

“Back?” Her wide eyes met his, her lips were parted as she panted for breath. “Go back down there? With those things?”

He nodded slowly, watching her. “Yeah, kid. We can’t stay up here. The cells are bad. There’s more on the HG.”

“But we can’t go back with those things down there!” Jack nearly yelled, panic and fear threatening to make her hysterical.

Riddick turned to her, taking her tiny hand in his huge one, “Relax, kid, the lights on the skiff will keep 'em away. You won’t even have to leave your seat, alright?”

Jack sat and stared into his eyes for long moments before slowly taking a deep breath. “Okay. Alright.” She continued to whisper the words to herself in a litany that was obviously comforting, as if the repetition would make her mind accept it.

Riddick carefully released her hand, not sure if she was using his touch as a sort of lifeline to her sanity. She didn’t freak right away and he watched her for a moment longer before turning to the flight controls.

He didn’t want to tell her that he wasn’t especially thrilled to be setting back down himself. Not for the same reasons as the kid. He didn’t know how long the eclipse would last. What he did know was that the beasts had been in a near frenzy at the end just before they left. He didn’t know shit about zoology or that crap, but he could guess. The creatures had been starving for a taste of something other than relatives for more than two decades. Yet they had acted carefully, albeit excitedly, when they had been released from their underground prison. Then they had started to fight among themselves, something all races did. But the little fuckfest they’d been having over the canyon and the sudden attacks that disregarded the lights their victims were carrying made him think their free time was drawing to an end.

His next concern was for the skiff. It was an emergency vessel, not meant to burn through a planet's atmosphere again and again. But they didn't have a choice, and in the end he just held his breath and watched the hull's monitors on reentry.

It took him quite a while to find the HG. He was no damn pilot. He could do enough to save them, and would have no trouble landing. But what he knew had been quickly learned and wasn’t complete. The skiff was almost fucking idiot proof though, designed to be simple for half-witted people made stupider by fear. The holy man probably could’ve flown the tin can. Not that he was going to let either of his passengers know that.

He flew low over the area where the ship had crashed and then pulled up, startling several of the beasts that had been swooping in for a look. The sound of their bodies thumping off the hull made him smirk at his inadvertent kills. The kid was gasping and clinging to the arms of her chair, making him spare her a glance to ensure that was her only reaction.

The ground wasn’t whole. The entire planet must have had a honeycomb of tunnels just beneath the surface. The rain had softened the ground enough to cause it to cave in. The cargo container and the sand-cat were gone, sunken into the black void of the gaping ground. They could have that other shit, he just needed the cells.

After passing once he picked a spot close to the spires. As he set the skiff down he prepared to take off again should the ground give way, but it seemed solid enough.

“We’re too far away. Riddick, get closer.” Her voice was high as if she were on the verge of panicking. Hell, she was panicking.

He ignored her until he had finished powering down. Turning on the skiff's flood lights he checked the systems monitor and saw that the draw on the cells was minimal compared to flying. The powerful beams at the front of the skiff nearly lit a path to the HG. He could see that the bluish glow still lit the inside of the half-buried ship. *Is it lower?* He frowned as this thought came unbidden.

“Riddick, please. Just get closer. Please,” Jack was begging. Her eyes were darting from him to the windshield, her gaze searching upward at movement that he knew she wasn't seeing fully.

He unbuckled himself and stood, not bothering to reply to her continued pleading words. The ramp began lowering with a loud grinding and then he had to grab the edge of the hull to keep from being pushed over. The kid’s small fingers dug into his arm when she ran into him, nearly knocking him over.

“Please, Riddick. Just move us closer. Please.”

Riddick pried her hands off of him with a bit of a wince. Damn, she had a grip! He held her shoulders and leaned over to look down at her, staring into eyes that seemed too damn big for her face. “Kid, it’s okay. Just stay here.”

He could see she was ready to cry and he felt a very new and strange sensation at realizing she was scared for him. He shook off the unsettling feelings. *She’s only scared cuz if you buy it she won’t make it off the planet.* That was better, something he was more familiar with. Survival. It led people to do some strange damn things. One kid clinging to a mass murderer as if he were her only hope was completely logical. Still the logic didn’t ring true to him. And watching a tear slide down her grimy cheek, he thought how interesting it would be if she really did care.

He almost snorted at the uncharacteristic thoughts. Great! Now he was going soft over some skinny kid.

The holy man stepped up behind Jack and set his hand on her shoulder, his dark eyes on Riddick. “You will be careful, Mr. Riddick.”

It wasn’t a question, but Riddick nodded and released her. Before she could grab him again he turned and headed down the ramp.

He stayed in the light of the skiff as he circled to the front and stood looking down the corridor of light the skiff’s front beams were creating. The beasts circled and closed in, shrieking in the darkness, though they stayed well back from the skiff and the blue glow from inside the HG. He should have no problems.

A sixth sense made him turn slightly and look up at the windshield of the skiff. Jack's wide eyes reflected the light and almost seemed to glow as she stared out at him. Seeing her watching him caused another strange feeling to jolt through him. He was new to caring what his feelings meant at all, considering anything he couldn't decipher quickly as too soft to care about anyway. So the uncomfortable feeling he got must only be annoyance at having *her* watching out for *him*.

He set off at a ground-eating trot, shiv at the ready. Watching for any yawning openings in the dropping shadows before him, and the sky for any adventurous beasts needing a quick meal, he reached the HG without incident. Sliding his shiv away he pushed the door open further and went in.

With the lights on he doubted if any of the night creatures had ventured inside so he wasn't hugely concerned about being welcomed. They would need four of the cells to replace the four he had labored to drag to the settlement. Pulling out two of the precious cells he hoisted one to each shoulder. Two trips made the most sense. The cells hadn’t liked being dragged, and there was no other way to move them all at once.

He stepped to the door and looked around. One large beast swooped low and then screamed and fled into the night as it came into the light. He felt damn vulnerable having neither hand free for his shiv. If it came down to it he would have to dump one of the cells to fight. With that thought and the cold comforting press of the shiv at his waist he set off.

Exhaustion must have been making his brain numb. Without his hands free there was no way to pull his goggles on against the penetrating lights of the skiff. He was nearly blind by the time he reached the skiff and ducked around the side out of the scorching white light.

The holy man took one of the cells from him as he came up the ramp. They both set the new cells down like they were made of glass and Riddick couldn’t control the smirk at their equally careful treatment.

“Two is enough, right? Can’t we just leave with two?” Jack’s voice brought him to his feet with a suppressed grimace of pain for his abused leg. The kid looked like she was getting over her near hysteria from earlier, but the pitch of her voice was high, her words fast and breathless.

“Mr. Riddick knows what he is doing, child,” came Imam’s low voice. Riddick gave the holy man a long look. His ability to sooth the child was strange to him, and he had yet to get used to being called Mr. Riddick. Made him feel almost human, he thought with a chuckle as he headed down the ramp again.

In just the short time from the first trip out he could sense the difference in the beasts. Their calls were louder and more frenzied, never ending as they cried out to locate each other, and him. He waited. Their eerie conversations did not settle as he had hoped. Instead they seemed to intensify, as if they knew he was waiting.

He pulled his shiv with a shrug and started out. Let them come. He wasn’t on the menu. He was surprised when he made the trip again without incidence. Movement to his right caught his attention and he paused at the door and watched. The dark hole in the ground where the cargo container had been was now a flurry of activity. The edge of the hole was literally a ring of the writhing beasts. They jostled and slashed and butted heads for position. Others just dropped straight into the hole and out of sight. What were they doing?

He didn’t feel like questioning them, or investigating. Let the nasty fucks play their games, he had his own agenda.

This time he remembered to pull his goggles down before carefully hefting the two cells onto his shoulders. A strange noise brought him to a halt. He strained to hear the new sound again. Nothing.

Frowning at the sound from below he moved around the debris in his path and headed for the door. He didn’t make it.

A strange sort of vertigo wrenched his stomach as he watched the lights from the skiff disappear from the open doorway to be replaced by dark sky. His weary brain took several seconds to comprehend what this meant, several seconds too long. He was falling before he knew it. Sliding at first as the ship tilted backwards, then just straight falling.

He came down hard against what had once been the front wall of the ship. It was in no way smooth and he grunted as the odd angles pressed sharply into his back, feeling the skin tear in several places, hoping nothing would puncture through. Moments later 35 kilos of power cell came down on him. He grunted again as he felt and heard at least three ribs break.

*Well, at least the fuckin’ cell ain’t hurt.* He didn’t waste any time before rolling the damn thing off him and then carefully standing, groaning at the pain in his ribs. He looked up and swore.

The HG was sitting nearly straight up and down in a very deep hole. The floor was a practically vertical. There was no way he could climb back out without help. Shit!

~^~^~^~^~

Jack paced nervously back and forth in front of the skiff. She could hear the flying creatures all around her, but thankfully she couldn’t see any of them.

Imam had nearly begged her not to leave the skiff. Ha! Riddick could run a half-mile through the fucking dark but she couldn’t venture two feet from the ramp? Like hell.

She knew they thought she was about fucking nuts. A scared little kid clinging to the biggest baddest and safest thing she could find. Well, that was partially true. She was scared. Those axe-headed things were out for blood, and she was soaked with it. Shouldn’t she be terrified? But that was only the half of it…

Where was Riddick?

She stopped pacing and stood staring down at the wreck. She frowned as she heard a faint grinding noise in the distance. What the hell was that? Then she watched with a shocked gasp as the ship sank into the muddy ground.

“Riddick!” she screamed and started running. She had taken a dozen or more steps when a high-pitched cry in the air above her penetrated the screaming in her mind. She slid to a stop and immediately started back stepping towards the light, and away from Riddick.

Oh, Gods, Riddick! He could be dead! Bleeding to death, or broken or being ripped apart by the fucking things underground.

“Jackie?”

She turned at the sound of Imam’s voice. “What do we do? We have to help him!”

He got that same look he’d gotten back at the settlement before Fry had run out to help Riddick. He’d already given him up for dead! She had wanted to slap him then. Now she could barely contain herself. For a fucking holy man he sure gave up on people awful damn quick. Or was it just Riddick?

“No!” she said instead, shouting at him. “He’s not dead! And we’re going to fucking help him!”

The black man just looked even more saddened by her outburst. She stalked past him, barely restraining herself from knocking him out of her way.

She started tearing stuff apart in the skiff, looking for anything that would help her. The ropes Riddick had used earlier to drag the cells would help, but she didn’t think they were long enough. Long enough for what, she hadn't quite determined. Digging into several small cabinets she came across several warm-up space suits. She tossed them aside to look deeper, then stilled. Looking down at her bloodied clothes she plucked at the blood-crusted crotch of her pants. Clean clothes.

The idea of changing clothes while Riddick was possibly bleeding to death at the bottom of the wrecked ship made her feel a bit guilty. But there was no way she could safely run outside in blood soaked clothes. She jumped up and hit the switch to close the ramp. She didn’t need that old holy guy to come in while she was changing.

It took her several minutes to strip out of her clothes. After a moment’s hesitation she ripped off the strip of cloth binding her breasts. As soon as she was free of it she stretched with a loud sigh, enjoying being able to breath normally for the first time in what felt like days. The flight suit was rather thick and she hoped the sudden development in certain areas would go unnoticed. The strip of cloth wadded up in her pants would slow the small amount of blood still seeping from soaking through again as well. Once she was zipped into her new and slightly dusty suit she rolled up the extra material at wrists and ankles, and then dug back into the lockers.

Flashlights! Holy shit! She pulled out the two cylindrical metal lights. Flipping the switch to turn it on she growled as nothing happened. Shit! Just before she tossed the useless piece of junk she saw a bright word printed on the side. ‘Shake’. She shook it up and down and then fell back on her butt as the piercing light blinded her. Damn! It was like a fucking weapon! And she had two! She shook the other several times and then grinned at the two white circles of light shining on the hull.

Setting her new toys aside she dug deeper and came across the one thing she would have killed for. Rope. She grabbed out the coil of nylon rope and hugged it.

Imam gave her an assessing look as she came out wearing her new outfit. She ignored him. His unwillingness to help Riddick had deflated her already questionable opinion of him. It seemed as if the one person that was supposed to have the most faith didn’t have any, at least where their murderer-turned-savior was concerned. So fuck him! She’d help Riddick on her own.

“Child, you can’t go out there,” he admonished softly, using that fatherly tone that she was quickly learning to despise.

“I can’t fucking stay here and do nuthin’!”

He blanched a bit at her cursing but she didn’t spare him another thought. Looping the rope over her head and arm she took a flashlight in each hand and shook. She continued to shake for a long minute. The longer the shake the longer the light, right? With a last glance at Imam she headed out.